Toxic PFAS Chemicals in our Food and Water

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of nearly 15,000 human-made, toxic chemicals used since the 1940s to make products. They are known as "forever chemicals" because they do not break down in the environment and they accumulate in human blood, leading to cancer.

There is currently no safe proven disposal method for them, unfortunately they are in everything, and the chemical industry hid the toxicity of them for decades. Now we are realizing how severely contaminated many communities have become because of these chemicals.

The US Agency for toxic disease and substances says nearly all Americans have a measurable amount of PFAS in our blood. This isn't just a US issue, as Europe has the same issue. PFAS is often not tracked in the human body and in the world so we still don't know the full scale of the issue.

I was listening to a podcast today about PFAS chemicals in our food and water and then it also coincidentally came up in the news. Here is the podcast episode link.

One of the guests on the podcast is Sarah Alexander, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. She and her collaborators filed a lawsuit to hold the EPA accountable for failing to protect public health and the environment from toxic PFAS that gets into our soil through toxic sludge. Toxic sludge is industrial and sewer waste residue containing hazardous pollutants like PFAS.

In 2016 the local community in Maine found PFAS in the water which led back to a farm. Through more testing, they found 90 farms in Maine with PFAS contamination. They found that this PFAS was coming from the sludge that was dumped on the farm fields for disposal. This happens in every state, not just Maine. Dumping sludge on farms is sanctioned by states and by the EPA. Yikes! Should farms knowingly sell food that is contaminated with PFAS or risk going out of business? Unfortunately, if the federal and state governments allow this, farmers have to make these challenging decisions.

The other podcast guest, Emily Donovan has been involved in the North Carolina PFAS issues through the organization Clean Cape Fear. They've been fighting companies, Dupont and Chemours for knowingly contaminating drinking water. From the 1980s through 2017, the companies knowingly discharged PFAS substances, including PFOA and GenX, into the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, affecting drinking water for over 500,000 people. This was covered in the film, Dark Waters. Trailer link here.

In 2017 the North Carolina communities were told that these PFAS chemicals could exist in the water because there were no federal or state guidelines to protect the people. They started working to create guidelines under the Obama EPA in 2024. They were able to establish the first ever federal drinking water standard for PFAS.

Unfortunately, starting in 2025 the Trump administration has initiated significant rollbacks of PFAS regulations and standards. They are doing this by rescinding limits on chemicals in our drinking water and withdrawing rules regarding industrial sites discharging PFAS into waterways.

I want to be clear that I'm not trying to make political statements in this blog post but I am providing factual information. I think this is important information for people to understand. This isn't about political parties, it's about the human race and our future. It's above politics and party lines.

A few questions here: Do we want our children, with their little bodies, drinking water and eating food contaminated with cancer-causing PFAS chemicals? Do we want companies to be allowed to knowingly contaminate our food and drinking water with PFAS chemicals? Why would politicians even allow this? Is it our right as humans to consume clean water and food? How much longer would humans live if we weren't consuming toxic chemicals? How would we feel day-to-day without toxic chemicals in our bodies?

The good thing is that most humans want to do the right thing. I think the issue is that this information is not circulated and talked about enough so people aren't aware. Thus, I share this information to create awareness and expand minds.

My final question is, what do you want for our planet and humanity? We can choose a future that doesn't include toxic chemicals in our food and water. There is a much larger percentage of good humans on the planet and we have to decide what we want for the human race. We all have free will to decide.